Meïr

Meïr, (Hebrew: “the Enlightener”) (flourished 2nd century ad), rabbi who was among the greatest of the tannaim, the group of some 225 masters of the Jewish Oral Law that flourished in Palestine for roughly the first 200 years ad. He continued the work of his teacher, Rabbi Akiba, in compiling by subject the Halakhot (laws) that came to be incorporated into the Mishna made by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, who took Meïr as his master.

Meïr was born in Asia Minor, and his real name may have been Nehorai or Mesha. When Rabbi Akiba was killed by the Romans during the persecutions that followed the Bar Kokhba revolt (ad 132–135), Meïr fled Palestine but later returned to the city of Usha. There he helped reestablish the Jewish high court known as the Sanhedrin. He also established Jewish academies in other cities. When Simeon, the patriarch of the Sanhedrin, threatened him with excommunication over a question of protocol, Meïr openly defied his authority and then left Palestine to return to Asia Minor.

He was known for his great dialectical skill in analyzing the pros and cons of a Halakha; the Talmud states that he could give 150 reasons to prove a thing clean and 150 to prove it unclean. He is cited by name in the Mishna more than 300 times. He was also renowned as a fabulist, holding his audiences spellbound with his learned lectures enlivened by anecdotes. His wife, Beruriah, is often cited in the Talmud as a model of generosity and faith. During the Middle Ages, legends of Meïr’s thaumaturgic powers sprang up, so that he is sometimes known as Baʿal ha-Nes, or Miracle Worker. A tomb marks his reputed burial place in Tiberias (Ṭeverya, Israel).